(Continued)
Early records are scant, but it is clear that all the Stuart Kings hunted the area on their visits to Newmarket. However, the first Master of whom much is known was a Mr. Thomas Panton from 1770 to 1800. A keen racing enthusiast, he won the Derby in 1796 with his horse Noble. The nineteenth century saw a succession of short Masterships, but with some notable names among them: Colonel John Cook, author of Observations on Foxhunting, and George Osbaldeston, known as the Squire of All England and perhaps the greatest all-round sportsman of his day, who lived at the Cottage, Little Thurlow.

During much of that century the Thurlow country and much of the present Suffolk Hunt country appear to have been hunted as one, with Mr. George Mure of Herringswell as Master from 1827 to 1845 and Mr. John Josselyn of Bury St. Edmunds from 1845 to 1864. At a meeting in the Rose and Crown in Great Thurlow in 1858, the old Thurlow Hunt Club was revived, which in turn led in 1884 to the establishment of the Newmarket and Thurlow in its own right, while the Suffolk Hunt confined its activities to its present boundaries. Hounds were kennelled at Little Thurlow Hall until new kennels were built at what is now Hart Wood on the Bradley road. Hounds remained there until 1970 when the Hunt amalgamated with the Puckeridge; the Hounds then moved to Brent Pelham and the kennels were sold.

Meantime in 1882 the Masters of Foxhounds Association had been formed and became the governing body of foxhunting. Initially its main task was to adjudicate on any dispute over hunt boundaries, but in time it developed the series of Rules by which the sport must be conducted and with which all Masters today have to comply.

In this area it has always been necessary to strike a balance between shooting and hunting. In 1800 Colonel Cook wrote of the abundance of reared pheasants which ruined the hunting, while Squire Osbaldeston complained of a "damnable shortage of foxes". In 1900 at Six Mile Bottom there were complaints of the damage the foxes had done to the partridges. In 1915 Mr. C. F. Ryder, first of Little Thurlow and later of Great Thurlow Hall, became Master and was largely responsible for seeing the Hunt through the difficulties of the First World War. Father of Mr. Stephen Ryder of Great Bradley Hall, he set an admirable example of the way hunting and shooting can operate together.

Throughout this period of comparatively short Masterships continuity was provided by Mr. Thomas Purkis of Barham Hall, Linton, who was Honorary Secretary from 1898 to 1926, and Will Woodward who was huntsman for fifteen seasons. The close links with Newmarket continued, and at the Meet at Branches Park in 1923 there is a photograph of two Grand National winners (Double Chance and Sergeant Murphy), Drifter who was second in 1922, and two other National horses, (one was Jack Horner, ridden by Mr. Harvey Leader who was to become Master for eight seasons after the Second World War).